Friday, January 31, 2014

Baruch
Dayan Emmes: Rabbi Yacov Galinsky of the Hadera Yeshiva passed away at the age
of 94 last week. He was a man who went to Siberia under Stalin and his only
prayer at the time was for a Jewish Burial he could not imagine being free. He
became a famous lecturer in Eretz Yisrael on Torah and taught a few generations
of Jews.

Please
also remove from the prayer list Aharon ben Sarah Chana who passed away this
week.

Editorial: I am not surprised by the drought

Nobody named me
Eliyahu, Yeshaya, Yermiyahu or named me Novi HaDor but one does not have to be
a Novi if he saw what happened in the days of Eliyahu. We have people who
follow public opinion polls and call themselves “leaders” but they are
followers of the Yetzer. Do you think our prayers alone bring rain? Well the
Zohar means four types of being: In animate, plant, animal and talking. What
happens when our “leaders” are willing to remove Mitzvah Observant Jews from
the heart of Eretz Yisrael? The land was commanded to vomit us out if we do not
go along the path and ways of Torah. The plants are part of the land and cannot
pray and the animals of the field and the dangerous ones are fruitful. A bit
early in the season the owls and cats have started mating and last week a man
was bitten by a snake who should have been hibernating at this time of year. Rabbi
Glixman if he read this would have turned his eyes heavenwards with tears “Until
when master of the world? Until when will you hold back your Moshiach and
salvation for us?” We are our own worst enemies and Abu Mazen, the Holocaust
Denial as his doctorate, is helping us by being stubborn and not accepting the
nonsense of these “leaders”.

Parsha Mishpatim 2

There was just too many Mitzvos to cover this
week so I gave a sprinkling here and there and perhaps next year I will go into
another section in detail.

The next section deals with death penalty or
capital cases.

12 He that smites a man, so that he
dies, shall surely be put to death.

One who strikes a man
so that he dies: Several verses have been written in the section dealing with
murderers, and I will explain what I am able to explain [about] why they [these
verses] are needed. One who strikes a man so that he dies: Why was this
said? Because it says: “And if a man strikes down any human being, he shall
surely be put to death” (Lev. 24:17), I understand [that even if he deals him]
a blow without death. Therefore, the Torah says: “He who strikes a man and he
dies,” meaning that he is liable only for a blow causing death. If it said: “He
who strikes a man,” and it did not say, “And if a man strikes down any human
being,” I would say that one is liable only if one strikes a man. If one
strikes a woman or a minor, how do we know [that one is liable]? Therefore, the
Torah says: “if [a man] strikes down any human being,” referring even to a
minor or even a woman. Also, if it said: “He who strikes a man,” I would
understand that even a minor who struck and killed [someone] would be liable.
Therefore, the Torah [specifically] says: “if a man strikes down,” but not a
minor who strikes [someone] down. Also, “if… strikes down any human being”
implies even a nonviable infant. Therefore, the Torah [here] says: “He who
strikes a man,” implying one is liable only if one strikes a viable infant, one
[who is] capable of becoming a man [i.e., an adult]. -[From Mechilta]

13 And if a man lie not in wait, but
God cause it to come to hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he may
flee.

Stalk: Heb. צָדָה, an expression meaning “lie in wait.” And so does
Scripture say: “but you are stalking (צֹדֶה) my soul to take it” (I Sam.
24:12). It is, however, impossible to say that צָדָה is an expression [that is]
related to [hunting animals as in the following verse:] “the one who hunted
game צַיִד) (הַצָּד ” (Gen. 27:33) [and to render: he did not hunt him down],
because in [the expression of] hunting beasts, there is no “hey” in its verb,
and the noun related to it is צַיִד, whereas the noun in this case is צְדִיָּה
(Num. 35:20), and its verb is צוֹדֶה, but the verb of this one [namely hunting]
is צָּד. I say, [therefore,] that this is to be interpreted as the Targum
[Onkelos] renders: But he who did not stalk [him]. Menachem, however,
classified it (Machbereth Menachem, p. 148) in the grouping along with הַצָּד צַיִד,
but I disagree with him. If it is at all possible to classify it in one of the
groupings of צד [enumerated by Menachem], we may classify it in the grouping of
“on the side (צַד) you shall be borne” (Isa. 66:12); “I shall shoot to the side
(צִדָּה) ” (I Sam. 20:20); “And he will speak words against [lit., to the side
of] (לְצַד) the Most High” (Dan. 7:25). Here, too, אִשֶׁר לֹא צָדָה means that
he did not look sideways (צִדֵּד) to find for him some occasion [lit., side] to
kill him. This [interpretation] too is questionable. In any case, it is an
expression of stalking. but God
brought [it] about into his hand: Heb. אִנָּה,
made it ready for his hand, an expression similar to “No harm will be prepared
(תְאוּנֶּה) for you” (Ps. 91:10); No wrong shall be prepared (יְאוּנֶּה) (Prov.
12:21); [and] “he is preparing himself (מִתְאַנֶה) against me” (II Kings 5:7), [meaning that] he is
preparing himself to find a pretext against me.. I will make a place for you: Even in the desert, where he [the man who has murdered] shall
flee, and what place affords him asylum? This is the camp of the Levites.
-[From Mechilta, Mak. 12b]

The Torah distinguishes between homicide and
accidental man slaughter. The next three lines are actions

14 And if a man come presumptuously
upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from Mine altar,
that he may die. 15 And he that
smites his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

Why the death penalty here. It certainly is not
a 4 year old angry at his mother or father. So why is the penalty so harsh? The
reason is perhaps that there are three partners in the creation of a child. The
Talmud did not know about DNA but phrased it this way: The father supplies the
white cells, the mother the red cells and the HOLY ONE BLESSED BE HE the soul. So
smiting a parent is tantamount to trying to smite HASHEM.

16 And he that steals a man, and sells
him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

Or the De Castro character in Ohio who stole
three young women for his fancy. Dr. Phil has had others over the years.

17 And he that curses his father or
his mother, shall surely be put to death.

This is not a “go jump in the lake” or even “drop
dead” but using THE NAME or A NAME of G-D to curse them.

18 And if men contend, and one smite
the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keep his bed; 19 if he rise again, and walk abroad
upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit; only he shall pay for the
loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

The language in Hebrew indicates 5 types of
indemnities. Damage, loss of work, healing, pain and embarrassment! I was
discussing this with Rabbi Shlomo Mimran Shlita. I said that even if we would
be judges we could probably access for fining the first three. Perhaps for pain
we can take the average for that type of injury. However, how can we measure
embarrassment? If a man be raped by another man or a Naughty Night-lady got
raped and found nude vs. a Beis Yacov girl? That is why our Rabbinical Courts
today don’t know how to proceed on embarrassment.

It says that the doctor וְרַפֹּאwill heal יְרַפֵּא: which
means according to the interpretation of the Hebrew that a doctor is given
permission from HASHEM to cure.

20 And if a man smite his bondman, or
his bondwoman, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be
punished.

Here it is looked upon as his property – a Canaanite
Slave but not a Jewish Bondman. However, the slave or bondman is a human being
part of G-D’s creation and to be treated as such not as one who breaks a dish
in anger. So the master is given the death penalty if he was warned and if not
warned he could be locked in a cell and even given food that shrinks his
stomach and they cause the stomach to burst but both penalties were rare and
one had to be a horrible master to beat like this unless the slave attacked and
abused a member of his family and the Torah does not mention this case here.

And should a man strike his manservant or his maidservant: The
text is referring to a Canaanite slave, or perhaps it is referring only to a
Hebrew [slave]? To clarify this, the Torah says: “because he is his property”
(verse 21). Just as his property is his permanent acquisition, so is the slave
[in question] one who is his permanent acquisition. Now, was he [the one who
kills his slave] not included in “He who strikes a man and he dies” (above,
verse 12) ? This verse was written [lit., came] to exclude him [the owner of
the slave] from the general rule [concerning murder], to be judged with the law
of “a day or two days” (verse 21), that if he did not die under his hand but
lingered an entire twenty-four-hour period, he is exempt. -[From Mechilta] with
a rod: The verse refers to [a rod] that has sufficient [weight and strength] to
kill [someone]. Or perhaps that is not so, but [the master is liable] even if
it [the rod] does not have sufficient [weight and strength] to kill? Therefore,
the Torah says concerning an Israelite: “Or if he strikes him with a stone that
can be held in the hand, from which he may die” (Num. 35:17). (“Or if he
strikes him with a wooden instrument that can be held in the hand, from which
he may die” ) (Num. 35:18). -[Mizrachi version] Now could the matter not be
understood by a kal vachomer [an inference from a major to a minor case], that
if [in the case of] an Israelite [victim], [a case] which is treated more stringently,
one is not liable unless he struck him [the victim] with an article that has
sufficient [weight and strength] to kill and the blow is on an organ which
could cause death, how much more should it be so [in the case of] a slave, [a
case] which is treated more leniently? -[From Mechilta] He shall surely be
avenged: [with] death by the sword [decapitation], and so does the Torah say:
“a sword avenging the vengeance of the covenant” (Lev. 26:25). -[From Mechilta,
Sanh. 52b]

21 Notwithstanding if he continue a
day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his money.

This section deals with fines and shall also be handled next week
Ble Neder.

22 And if men strive together, and
hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he
shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and
he shall pay as the judges determine.

The Torah here brings down a warning against
even accidently causing an abortion. However, in the case where the unborn
which is an uncertain life is attacking the viable life of the mother we view
the unborn as a Rodef (pursuer with intent to murder) and the mother’s life as
Pekuach Nefesh.

23 But if any harm follow, then thou
shalt give life for life, 24 eye
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 26 And if a man smite the eye of his
bondman, or the eye of his bondwoman, and destroy it, he shall let him go free
for his eye’s sake. 27 And if he
smite out his bondman’s tooth, or his bondwoman’s tooth, he shall let him go
free for his tooth’s sake.

The Rabbis interpret this as financial
compensation.

28 And if an ox gore a man or a woman,
that they die, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten;
but the owner of the ox shall be quit.

An ox, snake, elephant or what not is killed by
a Sanhedrin.

29 But if the ox was wont to gore in
time past, and warning hath been given to its owner, and he hath not kept it
in, but it hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and its owner
also shall be put to death. 30
If there be laid on him a ransom, then he shall give for the redemption of his
life whatsoever is laid upon him. 31
Whether it have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this
judgment shall it be done unto him. 32
If the ox gore a bondman or a bondwoman, he shall give unto their master thirty
shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

If a snake, lion, bear, etc. killed or attacked
a Jew it could be killed first and then brought to trial. Today we capture the
snake and give a man anti-venom are we mad!!!

33 And if a man shall open a pit, or
if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein, 34 the owner of the pit shall make it
good; he shall give money unto the owner of them, and the dead beast shall be
his. 35 And if one man’s ox hurt
another’s, so that it dies; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the
price of it; and the dead also they shall divide. 36 Or if it be known that the ox was wont to gore in time past,
and its owner hath not kept it in; he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead
beast shall be his own. 37 If a
man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall pay five oxen
for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

Up until now there has been various damages of men and animals.
Now we start dealing with thieft.

22:1 If a thief be found breaking in,
and be smitten so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguiltiness for him.

Although the Torah gives permission often the
police do not. However, one can neutralize the burglar that is best but
nowadays people who have done this humane gesture have been cruelly sued by this
scum of the earth.

2 If the sun be risen upon him, there
shall be bloodguiltiness for him—he shall make restitution; if he have nothing,
then he shall be sold for his theft. 3
If the theft be found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep, he
shall pay double. ... 7 If the thief be not found, then the
master of the house shall come near unto God, to see whether he have not put
his hand unto his neighbor’s goods. 8 For any sinful word, for a bull, for a donkey, for a
lamb, for a garment, for any lost article, concerning which he will say that
this is it, the plea[s] of both parties shall come to the judges, [and] whoever
the judges declare guilty shall pay twofold to his neighbor.…But if it be stolen from him, he
shall make restitution unto the owner thereof. 12 If it be torn in pieces, let him bring it for witness; he shall
not make good that which was torn. …

The above was
restitution for thievery and below is for rape and a warning about troubling a
widow or orphan.

15 And if a man entice a virgin that
is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be
his wife. 16 If her father
utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry
of virgins. 17 Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live. 18 Whosoever lieth with a beast shall
surely be put to death. {S}19 He that sacrificeth unto the gods,
save unto the LORD only, shall be utterly destroyed. 20 And a stranger shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress
him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 21 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. 22 If thou afflict them in any wise—for
if they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry—23 My wrath shall wax hot, and I will
kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children
fatherless. …

23:1Thou
shalt not utter a false report; put not thy hand with the wicked to be an
unrighteous witness. 2 Thou
shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bear witness in a
cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice; 3 neither shalt thou favour a poor man
in his cause. {S}4 If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his
ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

Below the
Torah requests one to go against your natural process and help your enemy.

5
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under its burden, thou shalt
forbear to pass by him; thou shalt surely release it with him. 6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of
thy poor in his cause. 7 Keep
thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for
I will not justify the wicked. 8
And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blinds them that have sight, and
perverts the words of the righteous. 9
And a stranger shalt thou not oppress; for ye know the heart of a stranger,
seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and gather in the
increase thereof; 11 but the
seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people
may eat; and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner
thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. 12 Six days thou shalt do thy work,
but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may have
rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

May be refreshed.This does
not mean physical rest only the Hebrew for refreshed is YE-NAFASH coming from
the root Nefesh or soul. If one does not rest the soul one is not really
observing Shabbos. This we rebuild the soul with Torah and prayers and the good
food and Shabbos Songs revive the soul.

13
And in all things that I have said unto you take ye heed; and make no mention
of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast
unto Me in the year. 15 The
feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep; seven days thou shalt eat unleavened
bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib--for in it
thou came out from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty;

You should bring a Korban Chaggiga on each festival.

Regarding the
Arabs in Eretz Yisrael 30
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be
increased, and inherit the land. 31
And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the
Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River; for I will deliver the
inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before
thee. 32 Thou shalt make no
covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in thy land--lest they make thee sin
against Me, for thou wilt serve their gods--for they will be a snare unto thee.

24:1 And unto Moses He said: ‘Come up
unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of
Israel; and worship ye afar off; 2
and Moses alone shall come near unto the LORD; but they shall not come near;
neither shall the people go up with him.’ …16 And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the
cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the
midst of the cloud. 17 And the
appearance of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the
mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into
the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Parsha Teruma

I repeat these few lines from the introduction from last week: During the last
few Parshiyos we have been dealing with the slavery and exodus from Mitzrayim.
Then as free men receiving laws pertaining to matters between man and man and
now Moshe has gone up the mountain. At this point HASHEM begins to establish
the relationship between men a G-D. The first thing is connecting to G-D
through a house of worship. At this point we begin to receive the requirements
for the place of worship and garments of the Cohanim.

Why do we use all the gold and
silver in the Temple and the Cohain dresses in fine linen and the Show-bread is
of the finest flour? This is to show off our best love to HASHEM and that comes
from the oral tradition that Kayn and Hevel offered sacrifices. Kayn did not
give the best and Hevel gave the best. The offering of Kayn was not accepted
and from this he came to slay Hevel.

25:1And
the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2
'Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering; of every
man whose heart makes him willing ye shall take My offering.

The key word is from the heart. If a person felt thankful that he
was healthy, HASHEM took him out of slavery to freedom, he might give more than
another but it had to come from the heart or even a calculated 10% of his
income or wealth but that is what he desired to give even though it was a
Mitzvah to donate 10% of the income to charity.

3
And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver, and
brass; 4 and blue, and purple,
and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair; 5 and rams' skins dyed red, and giraffe skins, and acacia-wood;

Unless the Egyptians donated to the Bnei Yisrael giraffe skins,
they would have to travel deep into Africa to obtain them and it would be from
all sorts of financial donations to fund the trip and food for the people traveling
to Africa.

6
oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense; 7 onyx stones, and stones to be set,
for the ephod, and for the breastplate. 8
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I show thee,
the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof,
even so shall ye make it. 10 And
they shall make an ark of acacia-wood: two cubits and a half shall be the
length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a
half the height thereof. 11 And
thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it,
and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. 12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in
the four feet thereof; and two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two
rings on the other side of it.

From 5768: The rings are
four in number and Rabbi Jankovits Shlita points out that this represents the 4
ways of learning everything – indicated in the word PARDES which we
learn practical and even secret Torah learning. They are round which means that
the learning of Torah is equal in each direction and endless. Even if we think
we have reached the end (Parshas Teruma of last year and returning again this
year) it is not so as we are learning on a whole new and deeper level. The
donations in our weekly Parsha were voluntary. One could give an Onyx stone or
a thousandth of the value of one of the stones to be set for the ephod. Every
Bnei Yisrael was donating according to his ability.

And you shall cast: Heb. וְיָצַקְךְתָּ, an expression of casting, as the
Targum [Onkelos] renders. its…corners: Heb. פַּעִמֹתָיו.
As the Targum [Onkelos] renders: זִיוְיָתֵיהּ, its corners. They were attached
on the upper corners, close to the ark cover, two from here and two from there,
across the width of the ark, and the poles were placed in them [the rings]. The
length of the ark separated the poles, two and one-half cubits between [one]
pole and [the other] pole, so that the two people carrying the ark would walk
between them [the poles]. So it is explained in Men., in the chapter entitled שתֵּי
הַלֶּחֶם (98b). two rings on its one side: Heb. וּשְׁתֵּי טַבָּעֹת,
lit., and two rings. These are the four rings [mentioned] in the beginning of
the verse, and [Scripture now] explains to you where they were [to be placed].
This “vav” is superfluous, and it is to be interpreted as שְׁתֵּי טַבָּעֹת, two
rings. But you can reconcile it [by interpreting it] in this way: and two of
these rings [shall be] on its one side, [meaning, and two of the four rings
mentioned in the beginning of this verse shall be on one side, etc.]. its…side: Heb. צַלְעוֹ,
its side.

13
And thou shalt make staves of acacia-wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 And thou shalt put the staves into
the rings on the sides of the ark, wherewith to bear the ark. 15 The staves shall be in the rings of
the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall
give thee. 17 And thou shalt
make an ark-cover of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. 18 And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold; of beaten work shalt
thou make them, at the two ends of the ark-cover. 19 And make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other
end; of one piece with the ark-cover shall ye make the cherubim of the two ends
thereof. 20 And the cherubim
shall spread out their wings on high, screening the ark-cover with their wings,
with their faces one to another; toward the ark-cover shall the faces of the
cherubim be. 21 And thou shalt
put the ark-cover above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee. 22
And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the
ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the
testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel.

I will arrange My
meetings with you there: When I arrange a meeting for you to speak with you,
[it is at] that place that I will arrange for the meeting where I will come to
speak to you. And I will speak with you from atop the ark cover: But elsewhere
it says: “and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying…” (Lev.
1:1). That is the Mishkan, outside the dividing curtain [whereas the ark was
within the dividing curtain]. The two verses are found to contradict one
another. The third verse comes and reconciles them. "And when Moses came
into the Tent of Meeting…he heard the voice speaking to him from atop the ark
cover" (Num. 7:89). [The solution is that] Moses would enter the Mishkan
and as soon as he came within the doorway, a voice would descend from heaven to
[the place] between the cherubim, from where it emanated and was heard by Moses
in the Tent of Meeting. — [from Sifrei, end of Naso] And all that I will
command you unto the children of Israel: Heb. וְאֵת. This “vav” [that Rashi
adds, meaning “and,”] is superfluous, and there are many similar [examples] in the
Torah. And you shall interpret it thus: "and all that I will speak with
you there is all that I will command you unto the children of Israel."

23
And thou shalt make a table of acacia-wood: two cubits shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height
thereof. 24 And thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. 25 And thou shalt make unto it a
border of a handbreadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the
border thereof round about. 26
And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four
corners that are on the four feet thereof. 27 Close by the border shall the rings be, for places for the
staves to bear the table. 28 And
thou shalt make the staves of acacia-wood, and overlay them with gold, that the
table may be borne with them. 29
And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and the pans thereof, and the jars
thereof, and the bowls thereof, wherewith to pour out; of pure gold shalt thou
make them. 30 And thou shalt set
upon the table showbread before Me always.

Does the ONE who gives bread to all flesh because of HIS loving kindness
and HIS great goodness does not need us to bake bread each week and place it
before HIM. So for what do we need to do this? To show our honor and love for our
FATHER, OUR KING IN HEAVEN! The same goes for the spoons for the incense to the
ONE who created all flowers, spices, the Esrog and Hadas. We are going to
present HIMwith good smells of the
incense for HIS sake but for our sake and to show our love.

And you shall make its
forms, its spoons: Heb. קְּעָרֹתָיו וְכַפֹּתָיו. קְּעָרֹתָיו is the form that
was made according to the shape of the bread (Men. 97a). The bread was made in
the shape of a type of box without a cover. It had a flat bottom (Men. 94b) and
it would be bent upward on both sides [forming something] similar to walls. Therefore,
it is called לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים, literally, the bread of faces, because it has
faces looking in both directions-toward the sides of the house [Mishkan] from
here [in one direction] and from there [in the other direction]. It was placed
lengthwise across the width of the table, and its walls stood vertically
opposite the edge of the table. A golden form and an iron form were made for
it. It was baked [on Fridays] in the iron form, and when it was taken out of
the oven, it would be placed in the golden form until the next day, which was
the Sabbath, when it would be arranged on the table. That form is called
קְעָרָה. its spoons: Heb. וְכַפֹּתָיו. They were the spoons in which the
frankincense was placed. There were two [spoons meant] for the two handfuls of
frankincense that were placed beside the two stacks, as it is said: “And you
shall place beside the stack pure frankincense” (Lev. 24:7). -[from Men. 97a] and
its supports: Heb. וּמְנַקּיֹתָיו. Its Aramaic translation is וּמְכִילָתֵיהּ,
[meaning] and its bearers. They are branches like golden pegs [Mizrachi
explains that they were like columns] standing on the ground and reaching a
considerable height upwards above the table, corresponding to the height of the
stack of bread. [They were] notched with six (Mizrachi-five) notches, one above
the other, and the ends of the pipes between one bread and another were
supported by these branches so that the burden of the upper breads should not
weigh down on the lower ones and cause them to break. The derivation of
מְכִילָתֵיהּ is “its bearers,” similar to “I am weary of bearing [it] (הָכִיל)”
(Jer. 6:11). But I do not know how the מְנַקִּיוֹת applies to branches. Other
Sages of Israel say that קְשׂתָיו refers to the branches, which harden
(מְקֻשוֹת) it [the showbread] and strengthen it so that it does not break, and
מְנַקִּיוֹתָיו refers to the pipes, which clean (מְנַקִּין) [the bread] so that
it should not become moldy (Men. 96a). But Onkelos, who rendered
[מְנַקִּיוֹתָיו as] מְכִילָתֵיהּ, understood it in a similar way to the words
of the one [Sage] who says [that] מְנַקִּיוֹת are branches. with which it will
be covered: Heb. יֻסַּ, [meaning] with which it will be covered. Regarding the
half-pipes, [Scripture] says “with which it will be covered” because they [the
half-pipes] were like a sort of roof and cover over it [the bread], and
similarly elsewhere (Num. 4:7) [Scripture] says, “the half- pipes which cover
(הַנָּסֶ),” and both of these [words]- יֻסַּ and (הַנָּסֶ) Are words meaning a
roof and a cover. http://www.templeinstitute.org/vessels_gallery_12.htm

31
And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the
candlestick be made, even its base, and its shaft; its cups, its knops, and its
flowers, shall be of one piece with it.

32
And there shall be six branches going out of the sides thereof: three branches
of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the
candle-stick out of the other side thereof; 33 three cups made like almond-blossoms in one branch, a knop and
a flower; and three cups made like almond-blossoms in the other branch, a knop
and a flower; so for the six branches going out of the candlestick. 34 And in the candlestick four cups
made like almond-blossoms, the knops thereof, and the flowers thereof. 35 And a knop under two branches of
one piece with it, and a knop under two branches of one piece with it, and a
knop under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of
the candlestick. 36 Their knops
and their branches shall be of one piece with it; the whole of it one beaten
work of pure gold. 37 And thou
shalt make the lamps thereof, seven; and they shall light the lamps thereof, to
give light over against it. 38
And the tongs thereof, and the snuff dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. 39 Of a talent of pure gold shall it
be made, with all these vessels. 40
And see that thou make them after their pattern, which is being shown thee in
the mount.

This ends the section on the gold that exists daily close to the
Mizbayach. The next section deals with the making of the tent of the Mishkan
and the fine materials used there. There is a good reason in chapter 26 and 27
why we use Acadia wood and that is it is plentiful in the Middle-east and
Africa. One can see these trees all over Eretz Yisrael today for photos look
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia

Smart Mussar from Rabbi A. L. Ever wonder what would happen if we
treated the Torah as we treat our cell phones?? What if we carried it around in
our purses or pocketbook?? What if we flipped through it several times a day?? What
if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?? What if we used it to receive
messages from the text?? What if we treated it as if we could not live without
it?? What if we gave it to kids as gifts?? What if we used it while we traveled??
What if we used it in case of emergency?? This is something to make you
go...hmmm...just is where my Torah today?? oh, and one more thing. Unlike our
cell phone, we do not have to worry about Torah being disconnected because it
calls never fall. Makes you stop and think, "where are my
priorities"?? NO dropped calls!! No worries about running out of
power-recharging it. It constantly recharges you!! No misdialed or wrong
connection, etc....!! Can be totally concealed in you. Can be used without
hardware. No activation or usage fees. Free nights and days, 365. Free text. Unlimited
amount of users. Always connects to the President/CEO/CFO/ 24/7

Hidden In Plain Sight, NCSY Success
Rediscovered Over Shabbos in the Mountains

As a twelve-year-old in the Mark Twain
public school in Brooklyn, Danielle Lantor dreamed of being a dancer on MTV and
being the most popular girl in her school. It was only when one of her dreams
came true that the troubles began. “I absorbed the methods of public school,”
she said. “That the most important thing was to be as cool as you could be. By
seventh grade I had achieved everything and I had this realization of utter
emptiness: Is this what my life is about?”

Danielle had been living with questions for
a long time by then. Years before, a close cousin was seriously injured in a
fire and left unable to talk or move. She saw the poverty-stricken lives of her
classmates. More and more, she began to feel that there was no order governing
the world. Danielle’s life began to falter. Her grades slipped and she was
always angry; she began hanging out with what she calls a “bad crowd.”

Her concerned mother reached out to an
Orthodox co-worker and asked if she knew any positive outlets for teens. The
woman recommended that Danielle attend an NCSY Shabbaton and Danielle’s mother
signed her up for one, without having a clear understanding about what it was.
Danielle wasn’t unhappy to attend, though, she, too, didn’t know what it was. “I
had a no idea what a Shabbaton was. I didn’t know what Shabbat was,” she said. A
friend came along with her and, as davening began on Friday evening, the two
began mocking the other NCSYers as they prayed. “They were moving but not going
anywhere,” she recalled. “It looked very bizarre. We were sitting in the corner
laughing our heads off.”

The next day, as davening began again, an
NCSY advisor, Adi Gidali, asked Danielle if she knew what everyone was doing.
“I said, ‘No, but they look stupid,’” she recalled. Gidali took her aside and
showed her a siddur and read through the morning Berachos with her. Gidali read
the Hebrew and Danielle read the English and answered amen to the Berachos. The
effect was transformative.

“All of a sudden, I had my questions
answered. For the first time in my, life I was thanking God for giving me
life,” she said. “I was appreciative of not being born blind and not being a
paraplegic and all these other things I took for granted. I realized in that
moment that everything in a person’s life is given directly for their life’s
journey. I realized all the things that up until then I thought were important—
how we dress, how we look — were on the outside. Judaism was screaming the
opposite: everything that’s important is on the inside.” “I had a million
questions and I kept on going back,” she said.

When she finished eighth grade, Danielle
considered continuing on her career path to New York’s LaGuardia High School of
Music & Art and Performing Arts, but Rabbi Jeffrey Greenberg, then the
director of New York NCSY, asked her to consider going to a Jewish high school,
Ezra Academy, instead. “I actually ended up going to yeshiva without any
inkling of becoming religious in any way, just to get my questions answered,”
she said.

She slowly became more observant. Each
step, she says, was a challenge for her and becoming more religious was a
struggle. Initially, Danielle believed the only two restrictions of Shabbat
were not handling money and not using electricity. Her friends would pick her
up on Friday night and they’d pay for her to watch a movie; afterwards they’d
go to a diner and Danielle would tell the waitress it was her birthday to get
free food. “I was stealing and watching movies and eating treif and I thought I
was being the best Jew ever and that was how I kept Shabbat.”

Looking for an even more religious
environment, she transferred out of Ezra to Shulamith High School for Girls
and, after graduating, spent the year at Sharfman’s, a seminary in Israel.

Danielle also began giving back to NCSY,
serving as an outreach coordinator on New York’s regional board in 11th grade
and as regional board president in 12th grade — all while being an active
member of Yachad, the Orthodox Union’s division that promotes inclusion of
special needs individuals in the greater Jewish community. For her work,
Danielle was made a member of NCSY’s prestigious Ben Zakkai Honor society.

During that time, her father was undergoing
his own religious transformation. In the words of his daughter, Noah Lantor was
always a spiritual person. He spent time in India. He undertook months-long
fasts for purification and even met the Dalai Lama’s brother. However, he still
hadn’t found what he was looking for until he stumbled into a Kaballah class
given by a local Chabad Shelach, Rabbi Yitzchok Winner. Slowly, he found
himself becoming more and more dedicated to living an Orthodox life. His
religious turn didn’t please his wife.

“My mother grew up just as television was
being invented and she watched this footage of concentration camps being
liberated every day,” Danielle explained. “At a young age, she could not get
over it. It made such a strong impression on her that she became an atheist and
didn’t believe in any organized religion.”

Eventually, as Danielle’s father became
closer to Rabbi Winner, he invited the family over for Shabbat dinner. While
her mother declined several times, the rabbis’ persistence eventually won her
over. The Shabbat dinner went well, until halfway through the meal.

“All of a sudden, my mother takes her fist
and slams it down on the table and she yells: How can you live your life as
Orthodox Jews? How can you think your God is just, if he does horrendous acts
like the Holocaust?” Danielle recalled.

The rebbetzin validated her feelings and
said that they were too close to the tragedy to make sense of it. Then the
rebbetzin asked what Danielle’s mother was doing about the Holocaust in this
generation?

“The
Rebbetzin pointed at me and asked if she could guarantee I would marry a Jew?
Hitler was trying to kill our bodies but now Jews are finishing his work with
assimilation.” Hoping to refute her husband’s arguments, Danielle’s mother
signed up for a class on Judaism. It turned out to be given by Rebbetzin Esther
Winner, the sister-in-law of her husband’s Chabad rabbi. “She started learning
the Torah and she read it over and over,” Danielle said.

The family grew in tandem, each one through
their individual journey. Soon after Danielle returned from Israel, she met her
future husband, Naphtali Sudwerts, a Shidduch proposed to her by none other
than Gidali, the advisor that first showed her how to pray. Danielle and her
husband have four children and live in Far Rockaway. Danielle teaches dance to
‘at-risk’ Jewish girls in a school in Brooklyn. “It’s really amazing to take my
talents and use it for Kedusha,” she said. She and her husband also teach
at Be’er Hagolah Institute, a school founded to provide Jewish education to
families and children who emigrated from the Former Soviet Union.

“I’ve been involved in Kiruv ever since I
became religious and I haven’t stopped,” Danielle said, adding that her home is
always open to her students in various capacities.

Recently,
her family spent Shabbos at a camp in the Poconos that was also hosting NCSY’s
Leadership Weekend. At Havdallah, her kids became so caught up in the
moment, dancing with the music, that the NCSYers invited them into their
circles. As she watched, with tears streaming down her cheeks, Danielle ran
over to Dr. David Luchins, whom she recognized as an advisor to the Ben Zakkai
Honor Society, and exclaimed: “Those kids with Peyos and who go to Bais Yaakov
are children of an old NCSYer who once didn’t even know about
Hashem!” He was intrigued and realized that she was a missing Ben
Zakkai member whom NCSY had been trying to track down for years. It was
believed that she had intermarried and was lost to the Jewish people, he told
her. Instead, he was moved to see her religious family, continuing on the path
that NCSY paved for her.

On October 28, 1940, Italy invaded Greece but was rapidly chased
back into Albania, where the Greeks held the Italians under siege for the next
five months. In April 1941, responding to Mussolini’s call for help, the
Germans invaded and overran Yugoslavia and Greece; by the end of May the bloody
fighting in Crete ended mainland Greek independence; the king and his
government relocated to Cairo and sporadic resistance continued in the
mountains. In the subsequent partition, Bulgaria realized her irredentist
claims to Macedonia and Thrace. Germany took Salonika and environs, the stretch
along the Turkish border to separate the Bulgarians and the Turks, and most of
Crete. The remainder of mainland Greece and her islands, several (e.g. Rhodes
and Kos) already occupied before the war, were allocated to Italy. Already in the fall of 1941 the two main wings of the Greek
resistance were forming: EAM (Ethniko Apeleutherotiko Metopo—the
National Liberation Front) and EDES (Ethnikos Demokratikos Metopon—the
National Republican Liberation Front). EAM was a loose confederation of pre-war
parties that had been silenced during the dictatorship of John Metaxas (August
1936–January 1941); it was secretly dominated by the remnants of the Greek
Communist Party that had been neutralized and all but destroyed under Metaxas. The deportation of the Jews from Bulgaria in March 1943 has to be
seen in light of Bulgaria’s alliance with the Reich and its acquiescence to
German demands. Even so, the Nazi negotiations for twenty thousand Jewish
workers and their families from Bulgaria were honored by the deportation to
Treblinka of some twelve thousand Jews from former Yugoslavian Macedonia and
from Bulgarian-occupied Greek Macedonia and Thrace. The remaining eight
thousand, who should have come from pre-war Bulgaria, were never supplied, and
upon this latter record rests the Bulgarian claim to be rescuers of Jews. The complicated
story of the pre-war ethnic tensions in Greek Macedonia that were exacerbated
into civil war by the three occupying armies and the internecine conflict among
the resistance forces need not concern us here. They are still being unraveled.
In 1943–1944 an unknown number of teenage Jewish girls joined the
general exodus of the Greek Resistance to the safety of the mountains. Many of
them left their extended families, which were soon herded by Germans and
Bulgarians to the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Jewish girls who escaped to the mountains during the spring 1943
deportations served in a number of ways that belied their somewhat genteel
urban upbringing and high level of education. They also came from a patriarchal
society that protected its women from too much contact with the harsh realities
of Balkan public life. Nevertheless, the girls received excellent education,
whether in Spanish, French, Italian, German or the national Greek culture. Many
of them were polyglot with a keen interest in the outside world into which they
increasingly entered during the inter-war period. Several examples will
illuminate some of the various roles filled by Jewish girls in the resistance
movements. Matilda Bourla (b. 1918 in Salonika) became interested in nursing
after seeing a film biography of Florence Nightingale. Despite family
objections to this interest, she subsequently left Salonika to visit her uncle
in Athens who helped her enter training. Many Jewish nurses served with the
Greek Red Cross during the war against Italy in 1940–1941. A number of them
later served with the resistance, whether EAM in the cities or its military
wing ELAS in the mountains. In the cities of the Italian zone where Jews were not persecuted
women acted as runners, contacts, and smugglers of weapons and propaganda.
Others were able to communicate with the occupiers and so assist in the rescue
of threatened resistance activists. Some joined the resistance women who acted
as escorts for Axis officers and so contributed to the flow of information that
flooded British intelligence centers. British Special Operations Executive
(SOE) files contain the names of several women agents on their payroll. Matilda Bourla worked in the Elpis Hospital in Athens until she
fell in danger of arrest by the Gestapo after the Germans took over the Italian
zone in September 1943. She was rescued by none other than the king’s personal
physician and was helped in escaping to the mountains above Thebes, where she
assisted at a resistance hospital. When German patrols threatened to overrun
the site, the nurses moved their patients higher up the mountain, each one
carrying a wounded man on her back for several hours. To this day Bourla still
suffers from back pains and rheumatism from her mountain adventures, the medals
for valor and service she received from France and Greece providing little
compensation. Another nurse, Fanny (Flora) Florentin (b. 1920 in Salonika),
served with the Greek Red Cross in Albania. In March 1943 she and her husband
Leon escaped to the mountains of Paiko where she served as a nurse to a Jewish
doctor (Dr. Yanni, later killed during the civil war) and trained young village
girls to be nurses’ aides. During a horrendous withdrawal from a German
search-and-destroy mission in the area of Gravena (inside Yugoslavia) in fall
1944, Fanny remained with her now abandoned wounded andartes (resistance
fighters) and was captured along with Salomon Matalon. Before he killed
himself, their communist leader gave her a knife, presumably to do the same.
Fanny was taken to jail in Ioannina where she defiantly told the SS she was a
Greek citizen and Jewish; they sent her by train to Trikkala and eventually to
Pavlos Melos prison in Salonika. When news of her arrival reached her sister
Maidi through the wife of a Greek doctor, Maidi contacted Flora’s friend, a
Belgian named Mrs. Riades, in the International Red Cross. (The sister was
later saved by Kosta Zanes, the head of the Greek Red Cross.) According to
Flora’s own story, she was then abducted from Pavlos Melos by resistance
members who had bribed the guards to let them in after word got out that she
was to be executed. Her story illustrates both the Jewish contributions to the
mountain story and the opportunity for survival in the city where influential
friends had the potential to save their Jewish colleagues. Daisy Carasso (b. 1926 in Salonika) was educated in a Greek public
school and completed only a few years of high school due to the war. Of all her
male relatives, only her father Alberto and younger brother Marko were not
drafted during the war. In April 1941, when the Germans entered Salonika and
began to confiscate Jewish businesses, among them the Molho bookstore, which
was the largest in Macedonia, her father lost his job as its manager. During
the mass arrests of the summer, he was taken hostage and after eighteen months
in various jails he was shot on December 30, 1942 in reprisal for the
resistance destruction of a bridge. His son Marko received his father’s watch
from students who worked in the prison. They told him his last wish was that
Marko protect the family and that he join the resistance to fight against the
Germans. Many of her father’s and brother’s friends eventually joined the andartiko
(fighting resistance). Marko went into hiding with Christian friends during
the continued roundups for forced labor. Daisy acted as liaison with her
brother and other young men whom he had recruited for the resistance. When she
went to arrange for the latter to escape to the mountains, however, she recalls
being chased away by the family matriarchs. A number of her friends who were
active in Zionist youth movements also joined the resistance. In early April 1943 Daisy Carasso left for the mountains with her
mother and her young sister through the arrangement of a Jew who was friendly
with a black marketeer, who was also the local recruiter for the Communist
Party and the andartiko from the village of Dafni near Nigrita. After a
number of adventures, including passing off her mother as a long-term resident
of France to account for her peculiar Greek accent, they reached the village of
Todorakia where the local teacher hosted them through Easter. When an informer
appeared, the local policeman warned them to escape; they left for Kilkis, where
the doorman of their building in Salonika lived. Lacking documents, they had to
return to the villages. Eventually they reached Nigrita where Daisy joined the
resistance. Such experiences illustrate the reasons why more Jews, especially
among the poor, did not escape to the mountains. Nigrita, with its population of about nine thousand, was the center
for ELAS Regiment 19, which had broad support from the intellectuals and
professionals of Nigrita and especially the teachers. Carasso joined EPON (the
Resistance Youth Movement), where she helped to prepare food and clothes and
assisted the families of andartes left in the twenty-two villages
surrounding Serres and Nigrita. She also helped recruit young men, did guard
duty, carried ammunition, and distributed leaflets and propaganda in Nigrita.
There were demonstrations on national holidays and once, when the Germans and
Bulgarians shot up one such demonstration, she led the young girls in a circle
dance around the monument to the unknown soldier, singing the death song of the
Suliote women from the 1821 War of Independence. After the war she returned to
Salonika and married Yizhak Moshe, who was known as Kapitan Kitsos for
his wartime leadership, and in 1949 immigrated to Israel. Many women were part of the fighting units of ELAS which, inter
alia, preached a liberation of women from the bonds of patriarchalism. The
Greek villagers reluctantly supported this revolutionary message, which was an
integral part of the new society that EAM/ELAS had introduced into the
mountains it controlled. After the war the village males quickly rejected this
particular heresy. The Greek Right and the British condemnation of the Left
(EAM) resistance as communist made it easier for the villagers to regain
control over their women after the war. However, tens of thousands of Greek
women refused to give up their belief in the liberation of women and many spent
a decade, even two, in postwar prisons for refusing to recant their
participation in the resistance and its revolution. World War II opened a new chapter in warfare with the appearance of
women fighters, particularly in the Communist dominated partisan movements.
While there were some hard-core Communists among them, many of the women were
socialist-leaning educated girls who recruited village girls or were themselves
refugees from Axis persecution. Morality was more than strict. The army
protected their virtue by threatening violators with death. However, it did
allow andartes to marry each other and provided a village priest for
that purpose. Several Jewish women are particularly interesting, especially since
Jews do not appear in the general literature about the resistance or in recent
studies about the women of the andartiko. Dora Bourla (b. 1926 in
Naousa) fought in the mountains of Macedonia and was known as “Tarzan” to her
fellow fighters. Her sister Yolanda (b. 1916 in Cairo), trained as a nurse,
also served in the mountains. Another Jewish girl was part of a female fighting
unit of thirty women. At the end of the war in Greece a Jewish member of
parliament, who had learned that the communist leadership had decided to ship
this unit to Korea as a sign of solidarity, rescued her from the group. Dora
was fortunate; all the women were killed in Korea. Sara Yehoshua (b. 1926 in Chalkis), known as Sarika, at the age of
fourteen became a nurse in her native Chalkida, the capital city of the island
of Euboea, where wounded soldiers and amputees from the Albanian front were
sent. In 1943 she and her mother escaped the German roundups and went by mule
to the mountain villages, where she taught for a while until the Germans burned
the village for harboring Jewish refugees. Sporting bandoliers she went higher
up the mountain to work at the Resistance Command Post in Steni. When it was
decided to form a women’s unit she was a natural candidate and so, at the age
of seventeen, she became a kapitanissa and chose a squad of twelve girls
from those she had recruited. Sarika and her squad functioned as a diversionary unit. Armed with
Molotov cocktails, they attacked outlying sites to draw the Germans away from
the main target. When the Germans arrived all they found was a group of girls
playing. They also aided in the capture of collaborators. Sarika herself was
granted permission to hunt down and kill an informer who had sadistically
tortured and murdered a young Jewish teacher (Menti [Mendy] Moshowitz of
Salonika) who was hiding in the same village as Sarika, who was herself the
intended target. Sarika came from a family of heroes. A statue to her uncle Mordecai
Frizis stands in her native Chalkida; he was the highest-ranking Greek officer
to fall leading his men in the successful counterattack that turned back the
flank of the Italian invaders in November 1940. In 1991 when Saddam Hussein
responded to the American attack on Iraq by sending SCUDs to bomb Israel, her
house was the first to be destroyed by a direct hit. Fortunately she was with
her son, a decorated but invalid veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The variegated story of the women in the Greek Resistance during
World War II has much to teach and more to inspire, as recent scholarship
indicates. A great deal still needs to be done, however, not only on the
theoretical level but also—primarily—on the practical level of uncovering their
deeds and the ideas that motivated them to rebel against an age-old system and
embrace a revolutionary ideology aimed at liberating not only their country but
also, especially, themselves.

The Apple
does not fall far from the tree is a saying in Hebrew: Yair is the son of Netanyahu's third wife,
Sarah. Netanyahu was himself married to a non-Jewish woman, Fleur Cates,
between 1981 and 1984. Netanyahu has claimed that she converted, although this
has never been confirmed. Last June, during a state visit to Poland, Jewish
community members said they witnessed Netanyahu and other government officials eating non-kosher food despite the efforts to prevent Poland to
ban Shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter). http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176767#.UuZWQZv8LIU

Sometimes from others I get good questions. Charlie
wrote If I had been in the holocaust would I have remained firm in my believe
in G-D? Over the years, I have met or heard of people who became stronger and
those who became weaker. Those who became stronger sited things like women
running around with their hair uncovered having it shaved off, tattooed
prisoners making their skin into lamp shades, those who knew that the fight
between the Likvaks and the Galiziana Jews was wrong
saw them sharing soup in the concentration camp and one depending on the other,
those who liked the German Kulture taught a lesson about secular culture, etc.
while others especially Chassidim who saw their Rebbe tortured by the Nazis and
thought that he was a miracle worker turned away or just the whole non-kosher
food for years and non-practice destroyed them. Some of course never made it. I
used to have dreams of riding a strange railroad car with no seats when I was a
small boy and others in my generation the same type of thing in dreams or
memories. I wrote about this about two or three weeks ago in the
rabbipauli.blogspot.com in the stories after the Torah Portion.

Reuven K. - I don't like Alex Jones. He is anti-Israel, and very likely a
Jew-hater. But when the skunk tells you that the dam upriver has given way, you
get to higher ground NO MATTER HOW BAD THE SKUNK STINKS! Otherwise, you will
get washed away. This skunk from Texas, Alex Jones, has warned ACCURATELY that
the dam of tyranny has broken loose and is flooding over his country, the land
of my birth. PAY ATTENTION! And if you can, GET THE HELL OUT! And, if you are a
Jew, COME HOME!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9P-xvoMZHY#t=265

It
was related to me by Reuven K. that our tanks and troops entered Kahn Unis this
week but nothing happened probably looking for tunnels and booby traps.
However, for every rocket attack the policy has returned to a very strong
aircraft attack but the forces of evil continue: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176931#.UusYOpvxvIU

Reuven
Kossover via Jay Goldbergon Obama-care vs. Israel’s Medicine. Now, let me clue you in on what we
pay for health insurance in a country with SOCIALIZED MEDICINE THAT WORKS!!! We
pay NIS 486 every three months for premiums to the the National Insurance
Institute, we pay NIS 250 a month in premiums to our specific health-care
provider. So, in premiums, we pay NIS 412 a month - about $118. We pay a
minimum of NIS 15 for each prescription, or $4.30, and rarely pay more than
twice that. We pay NIS 30 to see a specialist as a co-pay, and NIS 25 for
X-rays and the like. We pay NOTHING to see our family physician in co-pays. After
you watch this video, YOU figure out which country is ripping you off. If you
are JEWISH, you really want to think about coming home IF YOU CAN and ditching
Obama-care.

Now for M. Wolfberg’s “Last Minute” and “Rings true”

Good Shabbos Everyone. In this week's Parsha Mishpatim, the Torah tells
us "Six days shall you accomplish your activities, and on the seventh day
you shall desist, so that ... [you] will be refreshed." (Shemos
23:12) Shabbos is one of the foundations of Jewish belief.
Shabbos is the most
important institution in the Jewish faith. The Sages go so far as to say that
observing Shabbos is the solution to all the world’s problems. As the Talmud
teaches us: “If all the Children of Israel would observe one Shabbos properly,
then Moshiach would come immediately." (The 39 Avoth Melacha of Shabbath,
Rabbi Baruch Chait, citing Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanis 1:1)
"The importance of
Shabbos is evidenced by the fact that Shabbos appears in the Ten Commandments,
which is the seminal creed of the Jewish people. Many people openly say
"ok, I keep the Ten Commandments, I do the basics, I am a good
person." However, one who does not keep Shabbos is only observing nine
of the Ten Commandments. (Shabbos, Rav Aryeh Kaplan) The following
amazing true Shabbos story told in the first person, will inspire all of us to
keep Shabbos properly.
I remember many years ago
when I first began to keep Shabbos. At the time I was new to Jewish observance.
I had been hitchhiking around the country, and living on the streets for a few
years, searching deeply for answers and ways in which I could become closer to
G-d. I was fortunate enough to come into contact with the Chabad House in
Berkeley, CA, where I met Rabbi Yehuda Ferris. Such a special Jew, so loving
and non-judgmental, he turned me on to Shabbos.
After some months of living
there it was time to move on, and I took on the commitment of keeping Shabbos.
I made it very clear to G-d that even though I was hitchhiking, and even if I
should be on the side of the road once Shabbos came in, I would simply stay
there with my pack till after Shabbos. So I began my journey.
I arrived in Boulder, Colorado,
on a Friday afternoon. Not to worry though, I would go to the local Chabad
House. I found the address and directions, and proceeded to walk the few miles
necessary. I figured I still had a good three to four hours and that I was ok
for time. When I finally arrived at the address I did not find a Chabad house,
but a huge office building. At this point I was a little worried. I went inside
and saw that the Chabad office was on the third floor. Of course it was already
closed for Shabbos.
Now what to do? I should
mention my appearance: I had long dreadlocks (matted hair) with a Tibetan bell
attached, a scraggly beard, tattered, painted pants and a very exotic shirt
from India, which had Sanskrit written all over it. I definitely was not your
average looking Jew, or even human.
I noticed that there was a
financial firm of some sort next door to the office, with a glass door through
which I could see an elderly lady sitting at a desk and looking at me. I asked
if she might let me use the phone. I was getting a little nervous because it
was almost Shabbos. She asked me in quite a surprised and curious tone,
"Are you one of those religious Jews?"
She had seen me knocking on the
Chabad door, but was confused by my appearance. I told that I was Jewish and
trying to be religious. "Oh, that's wonderful," she exclaimed.
"I'm a born-again X-tian and I think you Jews are the
greatest!"
She invited me in and I called
the Chabad House in Denver. They told me that there was nothing they could do
as Shabbos was so soon and they knew no one who could help me in Boulder. I
proceeded to call all the synagogues in the phone book. This was many years ago
when there were almost no observant Jews there. (Now, B"H, that is not the
case.)
The synagogues simply laughed
at me. My problem was not that I needed a place to stay, but rather a place to
leave my backpack, because you cannot carry outside on Shabbos. I had lived on
the streets for a few years and knew how to take care of myself. My main
concern was to not break Shabbos. I traveled with candles and grape juice for
this very purpose.
Finally I spoke to one person
who told me that I could leave my pack if the janitor was there. The lady had
been listening and offered to drive me to the Synagogue. I was greatly
relieved, because there was only an hour to Shabbos. We went in her new
Cadillac to the Synagogue, only to find it locked, and no one there.
At this point I decided to
forget it, throw my pack in the bushes and retrieve it after Shabbos. The
woman would not hear of it, and offered to allow me to celebrate Shabbos at her
home. I was amazed by her kindness, and saw no reason not to take up her
wonderful offer. I told her yes but we had to hurry. Not a moment too soon we
arrived at her house, which I might add was quite nice and in one of the
ritzier areas of town.
Her husband came out and she
introduced me as a religious Jew who had come to celebrate the Sabbath. He was
overjoyed, and invited me in with nothing but graciousness. I immediately lit
candles and then davened (prayed).
Afterwards they put some food
together for me - I was a vegetarian then which made things easier. After I had
eaten they tried to explain to me about their Messiah and so on and so forth.
They spent about five minutes talking about it. I said that he sounds like a
great guy but that I was just starting to get into my Jewishness.
"Absolutely you should
learn about being Jewish and what it means. That is the most important
thing." After this they informed me that the following morning they were
going to visit their daughter, who lives in North Carolina, for a week, and
were leaving at 6:30am. I asked them to let me put my backpack in their
backyard, and I'd retrieve it on Saturday night.
"No, No," they
exclaimed. "We wouldn't hear of it. We want you to stay, here are the
keys, stay as long as you like. The house is yours. It is our honor to be able
to serve a Jew and help him in any way." How clear I was that this was a
miracle.
Here I was, coming into a town
I had never been to before, on Erev Shabbos. I didn't know anyone. I looked
like a complete freak, and this wealthy, elderly, non-Jewish couple asked me
into their home. Not only did they take me in, but they basically gave it to
me! And they really didn't try to convert me, but encouraged me to learn more
about being Jewish, and the importance of keeping Shabbos.
What more could I ask of
Hashem? He showed me what He is willing to do to help me keep Shabbos, if I am
willing to make the commitment too. We have to know that Hashem is not far away
from us. He is very close and involved in every aspect of our lives. If we will
simply let Him in, and be a part of our life, He will do things for us which
are far beyond our imagination. May we all be blessed to constantly see the
miracles that are manifest in our lives at every moment. Amen!"
If you experience the beauty of
Shabbos every week then you know "what it is all about."
If you have yet to experience Shabbos, then your imagination will have to
suffice. Everyone knows that reality is much better than the imagination.
Good Shabbos Everyone.

Good Shabbos Everyone. Hashem
commands us this week saying "Make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell
among them." (Shemos 25:8) The commentator Ohr HaChayim points out
that the verse states "Make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among
them" It would seem to make more sense if the Torah had said "Make
for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in it" Explains the Ohr HaChayim, when
the verse says "them" it is referring to the Bnai Yisroel. Hashem
feels at home where there is holiness.
The Medrash says the following about the
verse "...I will dwell among them" "If they
(the Jewish People) will do My will, my Shechina - holy presence will never
leave them." (Tanchuma parshas Bechukosai 3)
Klal Yisroel (the Jewish
People) was shaken by the tragic murders several months ago in Mumbai,
India. Among the innocent victims of the Muslim terrorists were our
Jewish brothers and sisters Gavriel and Rivky Holtzberg, directors of
Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai, Rabbis Bentzion Chroman and Leibish Teitelbaum,
Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz, and Yocheved Orpaz, all of whom were targeted
for being Jewish.
Sometime during the shiva
for Rivky Holtzberg, may Hashem avenge her blood, a young Israeli woman came
into her parent's the Rosenberg's home in Eretz Yisroel. She told Mrs.
Rosenberg that she had something for her, and handed her a small package.
Curious, Mrs. Rosenberg opened it and gasped.
Inside was
Rivky's diamond ring and one of her nicer Shabbos dresses. "How did you
get these?" The young woman gently told Rivky's mother, "Let me tell
you my story:
I had been traveling in India.
Somehow I ran into trouble with the law and ended up in an Indian jail. You
cannot begin to imagine what an awful, horrible, primitive place it was,
especially for a woman. The only luck I had was that that the jails there
are quite disorganized, and those who are in charge are corrupt. Somehow I
managed to escape.
"The first place I ran to was, of
course, the Chabad House. Everyone knew that that's where you went when you
needed help. Rivky welcomed me (a total stranger) fed me, and told me that it
was vital that I get out of the country. I knew that - but I was very afraid.
What if they would check me, check my passport? Then Rivky gave me one of her
Shabbos dresses and her diamond ring. Mrs. Rosenberg opened it and
gasped.
"If you look very
dignified, a well-dressed married woman with a ring on her finger, they won't
look too closely at you. They will leave you alone. A woman with a diamond ring
is in a different class. She's a respectable woman. She's not a criminal, not
some who has escaped from jail. They won't bother you."
"I took the dress and the ring
and as you can see, I got out safely. And now I have come to give you Rivky's
dress and her ring that she lent to me." Rivky's mother took the
possessions of her beloved martyred daughter. Then she told the young woman,
"Some time before her death, I saw Rivky and noticed that she wasn't
wearing her wedding ring. When I asked her about it, she told me 'zeh
b'shlichus.' It's on a mitzvah mission." May the memories of Reb Gavriel
and Rivka Holtzberg and all the other innocent Korbanos live forever and
be a blessing for us all. Good
Shabbos Everyone. M. Wolfberg is sponsored by: In Memory of a fine person and a good
Yitzchok ben Reb Shimon (Friedman) of blessed memory, Refuah Shleima to Reb
Mordechai Mendel ben Tziporah Yitta, Refuah Shleima to Leah bas Tziporah